Cole Mathis

About

Cole Mathis is an assistant professor in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems and in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputation, Security and Society at Arizona State University. He is a physicist and astrobiologist whose research focuses on the origin and nature of life on Earth as well as the possibility of life beyond our planet. His work aims to connect theoretical concepts with experiments and empirical validation, with the ultimate goal of helping create de novo life forms in the laboratory. Cole Mathis holds a PhD from Arizona State University and is affiliated with the Biodesign Center for Biocomputation, Security and Society as well as the Global Futures Scientists and Scholars group.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Data Mining
• Stereochemistry
• Mathematics
• Organic chemistry
• Combinatorics
• Biology
• Astrobiology
• Bioinformatics
• Inorganic chemistry

Selected publications

• False Positives and the Challenge of Testing the Alien Hypothesis

  Astrobiology · 2023-11-01 · 12 citations

  articleCorresponding

  The origin of life and the detection of alien life have historically been treated as separate scientific research problems. However, they are not strictly independent. Here, we discuss the need for a better integration of the sciences of life detection and origins of life. Framing these dual problems within the formalism of Bayesian hypothesis testing, we demonstrate via simple examples how high confidence in life detection claims require either (1) a strong prior hypothesis about the existence…

  PublisherDOI

• Determining Molecular Complexity using Assembly Theory and Spectroscopy

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-02-24 · 10 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Determining the complexity of molecules has important applications from molecular design to understanding the history of the process that led to the formation of the molecule. Currently, it is not possible to experimentally determine, without full structure elucidation, how complex a molecule is. Assembly Theory has been developed to quantify the complexity of a molecule by finding the shortest path to construct the molecule from building blocks, revealing its molecular assembly index (MA). In t…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Life detection in a universe of false positives

  BioEssays · 2023-10-11 · 9 citations

  articleSenior author

  Astrobiology aims to determine the distribution and diversity of life in the universe. But as the word "biosignature" suggests, what will be detected is not life itself, but an observation implicating living systems. Our limited access to other worlds suggests this observation is more likely to reflect out-of-equilibrium gasses than a writhing octopus. Yet, anything short of a writhing octopus will raise skepticism about what has been detected. Resolving that skepticism requires a theory to deli…

  PublisherDOI

• Experimentally measured assembly indices are required to determine the threshold for life

  Journal of The Royal Society Interface · 2024-11-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Assembly theory (AT) aims to distinguish living from non-living systems by explaining and quantifying selection and evolution. The theory proposes that the degree of assembly depends on the number of complex objects, with complexity measured using a combination of the object’s assembly index (AI) and its abundance. We previously provided experimental evidence supporting AT’s predictive power, finding that abiotic systems do not randomly produce organic molecules with an AI greater than approxima…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What it takes to solve the Origin(s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-08-22 · 6 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Understanding the origin(s) of life (OoL) is a fundamental challenge for science in the 21st century. Research on OoL spans many disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology, planetary sciences, computer science, mathematics and philosophy. The sheer number of different scientific perspectives relevant to the problem has resulted in the coexistence of diverse tools, techniques, data, and software in OoL studies. This has made communication between the disciplines relevant to the OoL extrem…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Leroy Cronin

  25 shared

• Sara Imari Walker

  24 shared

• Harrison B. Smith

  Blue Marble Space

  14 shared

• Graham Keenan

  University of Glasgow

  7 shared

• Haralampos N. Miras

  University of Glasgow

  7 shared

• Emma Carrick

  6 shared

• Piotr S. Gromski

  University of Glasgow

  6 shared

• Marcel Swart

  Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

  5 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Arizona State University

Similar researchers at Arizona State University

• Stephanie Forresth-81
• Upmanu Lallh-75